March 10, 2010

Many tea houses are available in Taipei for people to spend time alone or with their friends and enjoy a pot of tea in a relaxing, artistic, and literacy environment. We came to Wisteria Tea House (紫藤廬) located across street from National Taiwan University for the late afternoon tea. Wisteria Tea House is not only just a tea house, but also a city historical site. I am not an expert of the tea, since the knowledge of the tea is so broad and in-depth. But I would like to share with you what I have learned from Wisteria Tea House.

Wisteria Tea House was built in 1921. Prior to 1945, it was a high official residence of Taiwan during the Japanese Colonial Era. In 1950, it was given to Mr. Zhou Dewei, the director of custom. It was named for “Wisteria Tea House” in 1981 and operated by Mr. Zhou’s son-Zhou, Yu.

Wisteria Tea House was a cultural landmark that played an important role in the history of the opposition movement of the government in the 80’s. Now it is a place for art exhibition, local seminar, and gathering friends. We arrived there after the sunset, did not take pictures of the exterior, but only the interior.

There are a several rooms available inside- a room with sitting chairs and tables, a large room with the Japanese Tatami flooring, and small private rooms with Japanese Tatami flooring to be reserved for a larger party. We selected a corner table on the Tatami flooring in the larger room. The minimum cost per person is NT 250 ($8 US) with a selection of your favorite tea.

We selected Onlong tea and also ordered a plate of Green Bean Cakes for the snack.

There are variety methods in making tea. Tea can be made in a glass or a porcelain cup. Tea can also be made in a tea pot, which is the restaurant serving style. However, the Lao Ren Tea (老人茶) was what we had in Wisteria Tea House.

Lao Ren Tea represents an art which means taking time to prepare, smell, and drink. A tea set includes a small tea pot, tea mug, short and tall tea cups, and wooden tea spoon….etc. A glass pot for water and an alcohol lamp are also needed.

Onlong tea is better to prepare in a clay pot, and green tea in a porcelain tea pot, since clay pot has pores that can absorb the tea flavor.

Here is the demonstration:

Pouring hot water from the glass pot into a small clay pot and then pouring out the water into the Cha Hai (茶海) (black tall mug)

Pouring out the hot water from Cha Hai to the Wen Xiang Cup (文香杯) (the taller white cup for us to smell the fragrance of the tea) and Rukou Cup (入口杯) (the shorter white cup for us to drink the tea). The processes above are to warm up the clay pot, black tall mug, and two small cups.

Adding Onlong tea leaves by using the wooden tea spoon into the clay pot.

Pouring hot water into the pot with 90% full and letting it sit for 5 seconds to make tea.

Pouring the tea out completely into Cha Hai (black tall mug), and then pouring the tea from Cha Hai to Wen Xiang Cup (the white tall cup). The lady told us to pour out the tea completely to avoid bitter taste in the next cup. Now we were asked to smell the Wen Xiang Cup when it was full with tea. Afterwards, pour it into the Rukou Cup to drink. Now we were asked to smell the empty Wen Xiang Cup. The Wen Xiang Cup indeed had the fresh tea leave fragrances before and after the tea!

Repeat all these processes to make more cups of tea. She told us that if we needed to maintain the temperature of the clay pot, the “Lin Hou” (淋壺) process would be needed, which was to pour the hot water directly over the closed lid tea pot.

It’s not easy to make a cup of good tea, isn’t it? There are still more in-depth skills and knowledge I need to learn. Now, we just wanted to enjoy the tea and green bean cakes with reading a couple of good books!

To Fufu and Londoncaller- I am not familiar with how Japanese tea is prepared, but this is how "Lao Ren Tea" (老人茶) prepared in Taiwan. Perhaps the room environment with Japanese Tatami flooring makes it look like Japanese~~

It's a really nice tea house and I love the green bean cakes,I think only can buy it in Taiwan...I've only been a traditional green house in 九份 before, I need to learn more the tea art...Wanna try the Lao Ren Tea! ^.^

To londoncaller- Yes, 老人茶 is also named as 功夫茶! Ha! I've only tried maccha once and it was too strong for my taste too. Would like to visit Eiffel Tower in Paris again. I visited the one in Las Vegas last month though in a blue sky day.

To Zhu- Your Chinese writing is clear and great especially you were half sleepy! very impressive! The price for a pot of tea depends on the quality and selection of the tea. There is higher cost for better quality tea and tea houses in Taipei. $8 is not expensive in Taipei. This refers to if we are having tea in a tea house. However, we can always find a cold tea drink on street vendors for much less money, such as around $1 US for a cup of cold tea, but as you are already familiar with that it is a different type and style of drink. I have also found the prices in big cities of China are expensive too!

To Mylo- Ha, I was confused during the tea demonstration as well, but after a several practices, I was able to follow ~~ and your hot milo is done fast, simple, and I bet is delicious too! :)

To Lechua- This house was built during the Japanese Colonial Era, and it retains as a historical site in the city now. It has kept the Japanese setting to retain the original look. According to it's website, it always has the Japanese layout :)

I've been there 2 times before!They offer super healthy and nice mealI definitely will bring my friends to this place if we need to find some place to chill with nice food and drinks (and get lazy on tatami)